1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a computer input device, such as a mouse or the like, which can be held and controlled by human fingers. The volume and the size of the mouse can be reduced greatly by altering the operation mode of the mouse.
2. Background of the Invention
As a result of the fast development of information technology, computer has become more and more popular in our daily life. Many software for computer have been designed for running under the Windows operating system. Users can execute commands by using a mouse to pick up or "click" the options or icons provided in the Windows system. For this reason, mouse has became a necessary peripheral equipment of personal computers.
Referring to FIG. 1, the mouse of the conventional type generally has a housing 1 which includes a upper cover 11 and a bottom cover 12. The front portion of the upper cover 11 is furnished with a left button 13 and a right button 14 for executing commands. Typically, there is a movable cursor shown on the monitor/screen of the computer for indicating a corresponding position of a tracking ball (not shown in FIG. 1) furnished on a bottom cover 12 under the housing 1 of the mouse. By moving the housing 1 above a flat surface to cause a relative sliding between the tracking ball and the flat surface, the tracking ball will rotate and the cursor shown on the monitor/screen will also move corresponding to the rotation of the tracking ball. When operating the mouse, a user need to use his/her palm together with his/her fingers to hold the housing 1, having his/her index and middle fingers placing at the front portion of the upper cover 11, and having his/her thumb and little fingers placing at opposite sides of the housing 1, while the palm of the user is adapted to fit the rear portion of the upper cover 11.
Short distances of horizontal motion of the cursor is controlled by moving user's wrist horizontally to move the housing 1 in a short distance. Sometimes user has to lift and drop the housing 1 and repeat above action for conducting a relatively long distance of horizontal motion. The small vertical motion of the cursor is achieved by making a vertical motion of the housing 1 controlled by user's elbow and arm. Sometime users has to lift and drop the housing 1 and repeat above action for conducting a relatively long distance of vertical motion. However, if user keeps operating and using the conventional mouse for a long time, it could possibly cause serious hurt to user's palm, wrist and arm on nerve and muscle. For instance, "Carpal tunnel syndrome", is one of the symptoms caused by moving or pressing the wrist all day long. In addition, because the shape of the conventional mouse is designed to adapt the user's palm, the volume and size of the mouse is generally fixed to a predetermined size and can not be reduced even though the size of its interior components is actually very small.